CircleUp announced $125 million venture fund

CircleUp, what's been a marketplace for consumer and retail investing, is announcing that it now has a $125 million growth fund to invest in companies directly.

CircleUp, what's been a marketplace for consumer and retail investing, is announcing that it now has a $125 million growth fund to invest in companies directly.

Using machine learning technology called Helio, CircleUp Growth Partners says it will be able to identify potential investments using data about companies to predict success.

CircleUp co-founder and COO Rory Eakin said that he believes the company will be able to "find patterns and signals " and is "pioneering the advent of data and analytics."

While CircleUp is using technology to make its investments, the investments themselves will not be in the technology category. Instead, CircleUp is looking at food and beverage, personal care. Eakin says CircleUp's strategy is "companies that produce something that sit on a shelf."

The companies that they'll be looking at have $5 million to $10 million in revenue. Eakin says that they'll be co-investing with others in the CircleUp community.

CircleUp has already made a few investments. One of those is HUM Nutrition, which are beauty vitamins sold at Sephora. They've also made an investment in 4505 Chicharrones, which sells high protein, salty snacks.

The LP investors in the fund include Temasek, Euclidean Capital, Annie's Homegrown cofounder John Foraker and others.